Method of coating fabrics



D. D. FROTHI NGHAM AND R. YER.

METHO COATING FA APPLICA FILED mAY29,

l ,405, 1 9 8. Patented Jan. 31, 1922.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL n. morning-mam, or SALEM, AND RALPH u. SAWYER, or WINCHESTER,

' massaonusnrrs.

METHOD OF COA TING FABRICS.

Application filed May 29, h

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, DANIEL D. FROTH INGHAM and RALPH U. SAWYER, citizens of the United States, residing at Salem and WVinchester, respectively, in the counties of Essex and Middlesex, respectively, and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Coating Fabrics; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as w ll enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to a method of coating fabrics. I

The object of the invention is to produce a coated fabric of improved quality and at reduced cost. To these ends the invention consists in the method hereinafter described and particularly defined in the cla1m In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 illustrates a transverse section of two coating applying rolls, showing the fabr1c entering from one side and passing down between the rolls, in the nip of which the coating is applied by roll pressure; Flgs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 illustrate modifications of the arrangement hereinafter referred to.

The coating consists of any usual fabric coating material and may conveniently be made of celluloid and a solvent, and will, in preferred form, contain pigmentous material as distinguished fromsoluble coloring material.

I-Ieretofore coatings of this character have been applied to fabrics by the use of a spreader or by use of rolls arranged vertically one above the other, between which the cloth is passed, and on the upper surface of which, at the nip of the rolls, the coating material is applied. This coating material gathers in a roll at the nip, the pressure of the rolls upon each other determining the thickness and degree of impregnation of the fabric by the coating. In such former process, the action of the coating rolls upon the coating material as the fabric is passed throughthe rolls has been such as to separate a portion of the solid pigmentous material from the coating, with the result that the coating applied to the fabric has been deficient in pigment. This detracts from both the value and appearance of the finished product. The phenomenon appears to be due to the force exerted by the rotating rolls or spreader upon the solid Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 31, 1922.

1920. Serial No. 385,090.

I 1 particles of pigment causing the latter to be moved rearwardly through the fluent coating and in a direction from the nip of the rolls. This method has produced a coated fabric wherein the coating contains less pigment than is desired. '4

\Ve have discovered that if the cloth moves downbetween the rolls, or down against thefaceof a spreaderbar, the ac-' tion of gravitation upon the solid particles of pigment has resulted in their being carrled into the nip between therolls, or. bv the spreader bar, so that the pressure actually drives the coating into the fabric and the latter contains the same amount of pigment originally carried by the coating material. Thus, when the coating rolls 1, 1 are arranged with axes in the same horizontal plane as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 4, the action of gravitation upon the pigment in the coating material 2 at the ni of the rolls causes the pigment to be trawn in between the rolls with the fluent portion of the coating material. This method is particularly adapted for use in applying the coating by a rapid passage of the cloth between the coating rolls, in which case the fluent portion of the coating material is in a free-flowing condition as distinguished from a stiff or viscous condition, although it is also useful in the application to fabrics of coating in a stiff or viscous condition, as

it has been found that even in such a stiff or viscous coating material the particles of pigment are assisted in their movement. by gravitation.

In Figure 1 the cloth approaches the rolls in a horizontal plane and passes around one roll and down between the two rolls, through the nip of the rolls. where the coating is applied. In Fig. '2, the cloth approaches the rolls in a substantially vertical direction, being deflected to one side by the roll of coating 2 at the nip of the rolls. In Fig. 3 the rolls are arranged in angular )osition and the cloth approaches the nip 0 the rolls in a horizontal plane, or from above, as inclicated, and the roll of coating material 2 lies on the upper side of the clot-h and in the nip of the rolls, the position of the rolls being such that gravitation acts upon the particles of pigment in the coating to pull them toward the nip of the rolls. In Fig. 4, two pieces of cloth are simultaneously coated upon their adjacent surfaces by passing them both between the coat-ing rolls 1, either from the side or from above. as indicated. lie; tween the two pieces of cloth the coating material is introduced. and the roll 2 of such material is acted upon by gravitation in the same manner as in the other arrangements. After the two pieces of fabric have passed between the rolls. they will be separated as indicated in the drawings. This secures a rapid and eilicient method of coating cloth. Fig. 5 illustrates an alternative method of coating two pieces of cloth in which the coating material is located between the rolls and outer surfaces of the pieces of cloth. After passing through the rolls the cloth is separated as in Fig. 4.

dVhile the method is more especially adapted. as has been indicated. to coating cloth with solid-pigment-bearing coating material. it is. also adapted to the coating of cloth with coating material containing only soluble coloring matter, because the action of gravitation upon the coated material pulling it toward the nip of the rolls increases the penetration of the material into the fabric.

The method is especially adapted for use in applying thin, as distinguished from thick, layers of coating to fabrics, a consid-v erable portion of the coating material actusurface without the fracture of the surface.

In ordinary pigment-bearing coatings, the coating, being farther removed from the. surface of the fabric, is liable to be cracked by bending the coated surface convexly.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:-

The method of coating fabrics with a fluid. like coating material containing solid pigment which consists in passing the fabric downwardly through a pair of coating rolls and applying coating at the nip of the rolls, the rolls being arranged in such osition that the action of gravitation upon t e solid particles of pigment prevents the separation of the )igm'ent under the pressure of the rolls, whereby a coating containing a uniform quantity of pigment is applied to the fabric.

DANIEL D. FROTHINGHAM. RALPH U. SAVVYER. 

